Two Serpents, One Garden
by gioia99
Summary: Season 5 AU. While scouting the valley after defeating Elygius, Bellamy and Echo encounter a different kind of foe. Bellamy tries to kill it, but Echo has other ideas. She sees something in this serpent... something personal. Echo-centric. Undercurrents of Bellarke


**This is a one-shot that I've had in my mind for a long time, but I never quite had the inspiration to put it into words until I saw Echo's backstory in the latest episode.**

**She's my absolute favourite character in the show, and snakes are my favourite animals. I draw a lot of parallels between the two, so this is written in honour of them, and in hopes of changing a few minds.**

* * *

_I saw a young snake glide out of the mottled shade._

_And hang, limp on a stone: a thin mouth, and a tongue. Stayed still in the air._

_It turned, it drew away, its shadow bent in half. It quickened, and it was gone._

_I felt my cold blood warm, I longed to be that thing. That pure, sensuous form._

_And I may be, some time..._

…

They hear it before they see it – a sharp hiss, carving itself through the undergrowth like an arrow.

Bellamy freezes. He knows what that sound means. "Stop!" he calls harshly.

He and his partner pause as the sound dies and the air around them stills. He glances around nervously, shifts his feet-

And there it is again.

Calloused fingers tightening around the trigger in his grasp, he brings the scope to his eye, peering through it as he pivots, scouring his surrounds for the noise.

There! About two feet in front of them, barely distinguishable from the dull autumn leaves around them lies a coil of camouflage, of mottled brown scales and cold-blooded venom. A reptilian predator lying in ambush, coiled and waiting to strike.

He wouldn't have even known it was there if it wasn't for the hiss, and even through his scope the snake blends in almost imperceptively, save for the rapid flicking of its alien-like forked tongue. He stares at it, to find unblinking obsidian eyes staring right back at him. An unwavering omen of death.

Bellamy clenches his jaw. He's always hated snakes. From growing up on tales of Adam and Eve, of Medusa, of Ouroboros – the eternal Greek serpent that ate itself in order to be reborn in an endless cycle of destruction. A fear compounded upon hearing his sister had nearly been killed by a giant one on their first day on the ground. _Oh how long ago that seemed…_

Another hiss snaps his attention back, and he flicks his eyes to glance at his partner – only to find her frozen, transfixed on the serpent in front of them. Straining his mind to remember Pike's lessons, he vaguely identifies this one as some species of rattler. He doesn't care for specifics, only that it is highly venomous, and highly dangerous.

"Echo, stay back!" he warns. He almost feels stupid. The woman beside him is vastly more experienced on the ground, even here in the tiny valley that remains, and is a far more formidable warrior. But he is taking no chances. They have a scouting mission to complete: sweeping for any surviving Elygius prisoners. But there is another enemy in his way. And there is only one fate for enemies.

He raises his rifle and takes aim at the snake's evil face, braces against the trigger-

"Stop!"

An unyielding hand presses the barrel firmly down an instant before he fires. Bellamy baulks. He looks down and sees Echo's gloved hand on his weapon. Confused, he whips his head sideways to lock eyes with her. And what he sees stuns him.

The chocolate eyes of his partner are dark as always, but there is something in them this time that isn't normally there, something buried deep beneath the cold steel apathy, now threating to surface. Something painful.

He narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to speak, only to be silenced by the barest of shakes of her head.

Taking her eyes off him and looking back to the reptile in front of them, she drops her bow and unfastens the quiver on her back, placing them gently on the ground. Then she begins edging forward slowly, cautiously.

"Echo, _what_ are you _doing_?" Bellamy hisses at her, but she gives no reply.

She simply keeps moving, one silent foot in front of the other, moving ever closer to certain death.

Bellamy can only stand there and watch, knowing that any sudden moves will trigger the deadly animal. He has no idea what she thinks she's doing. He trusts her explicitly, but in no way does he trust the scaled vermin in front of her.

She's within striking distance now. Threatened, the viper arches up, coiling its neck in a wicked 's' while its namesake rattle is almost unbearably loud, but still she does not stop. She keeps getting closer, circular brown irises locked on split ebony ones.

Bellamy's heart is in his mouth as she drops – ever so slowly, with all the grace of a lifetime serving the Ice Queen – to her hands and knees and presses herself to the ground, almost mimicking the animal. Bellamy starts to believe those tales of Medusa are true, because his entire body is frozen stiff as she raises a hand up, moves it above the snake and then slowly, agonisingly, brings it down. Bellamy watches, helpless, as the snake hisses, Echo stills and-

-touches it.

Time slows to a halt as her fingers grace across its keeled body, soft human flesh gently pressing against firm reptilian scales.

And then she begins _stroking _it, brushing her fingers softly, almost caringly down along the length of its legless body. And then something even more unbelievable happens:

It _relaxes_.

Its tail stills, its head drops, its angered hisses fade into the forest. The faintest of smiles licks Echo's lips and she exhales. "Hello to you too, my friend." She whispers.

Then she picks it up!

Bellamy's eyes widen in shock as she stands and turns, the snake held loosely upon her open palms, still coiled within itself but now calm. Relaxed almost.

She smirks at the aghast look on his face. She would find it amusing if she weren't trying to prove a point. She turns her attention back to the snake, it's fearsome arrow-shaped head now soft and pliant atop her hand. Carefully, yet with a degree of tenderness one wouldn't assume her to be capable of, she strokes the underside of its mouth.

"_It's okay." _She whispers in trig, "_There are no enemies here."_

Even as she doesn't break eye contact with the reptile, Bellamy isn't sure if she is speaking to him or it. Her native tongue is something she rarely uses these days. Upon rescuing Wonkru from the bunker, it had devastated her to learn that none of her clan had survived the six years underground, and now she clings resolutely to the cold truth that she is the last of her once-fearsome kru. She only speaks trig around Bellamy now, and even then only when she feels absolutely comfortable. It's a coping mechanism, he has come to realise.

Sensing the importance of this moment to her, he tactfully remains silent, watching as she elegantly moves to the side of the trail and crouches back down, lowering her hand and allowing the snake to slither back into the auburn leaves. As it coils around itself, her fingers linger, almost longingly on the last of its scales before finally, she lets go and stands to face him.

The look on her face is indecipherable as Bellamy stares at her, mesmerised by what has just transpired. His mouth is a dry as the surrounding desert, and it is only the burning in his lungs that reminds him to let out the breath he had subconsciously be holding.

Exhaling heavily, he licks his lips as she approaches. "What?" she asks neutrally.

It takes a moment for him to find his voice. "How- _why _did you do that?"

She shrugs. "It didn't deserve to die."

"That thing could have killed you!" he tells her harshly.

"I was perfectly safe-" she retorts, her voice adopting a noticeable edge.

"You don't know that!"

"And you do?"

"One bite and you were dead! What reason could you possibly have for saving it? How can you even like them?"

"_Because they're hated!" _she snaps violently in trig.

Bellamy freezes at the sudden outburst of emotion. He watches as her chest heaves and water stings the corners of her eyes. She looks down at her feet and he moves to place his hand on her shoulder, only for her to turn away harshly.

Confused, he can't help but wonder why she is reacting this way over a snake, but then he sees the minute tremors wracking her lean shoulders under her fur coat, and he realises guiltily that it may be more than just the snake she is talking about.

For a long time the two stand there in silence.

"Snakes are rare, where I'm- where I was from..." Echo breaks the silence with a shaky whisper. "We thought of them the same as you do. What few we encountered, we killed on sight."

She flicks her eyes to his briefly and sniffs. "Then on my first solo mission for Nia I found one. I'd done what she asked. The target was dead, and I was on the run. I was forced to hide from the chasing army in a fissure, and in there with me was a snake. It was small, skinny and terrified, same as me. And just like me, it was only trying to survive."

Bellamy listens as her face darkens while she recounts, her angular features rendered blank by the memories of her life serving the Ice Queen. There is a deep resentment in her voice, and an even deeper self-hatred.

"We stayed in that fissure for two days." She continues. "I was starving. I could have eaten it. Most people would have. But I couldn't." she shakes her head sadly.

"I saw myself in that snake. I still do. It was reviled, useful only as a weapon of death and to be slaughtered afterwards. I could have killed it at any moment, just as it could have killed me. But we needed each other. It would warn me when soldiers were close, and it huddled against me for warmth. All my life I'd been trained as a killer, to have no mercy nor remorse. I'd always been so jealous of the other children, of how they got to laugh and play with their friends. But in that fissure, I finally found one of my own.

I've never killed once since, but no one else sees them like I do. They're still hated, still persecuted, still thought of as nothing but ravenous murderers…"

She drops her head. "I guess some things never change…"

She's crying now. Watery trails glisten down her cheeks, and her shoulders buck uncontrollably. She is supposed to be above such emotions. But there is only so much death, so much guilt, so many suppressed memories that one can take.

For Bellamy, this is a side of her he has never seen. She has always been so tight-lipped on her past, and what little she has told him was always spoken of distantly, her haunted words betraying the revile she holds for herself that he now sees clear as day.

Her tears cut through him. In all the time he has known her, from the cages in Mount Weather, to fighting on opposite sides in the conclave, learning to forgive each other on the ring to starting over on the ground, she has always been a paradigm of strength. Not even when she was about to drive a blade through her heart did she shed a tear.

Watching her now, he gets the sense that this is the first time in her life that she has cried. That she has _allowed herself _to cry.

His heart breaks for her, and he drops the rifle and wraps her in a hug, pulling her close. She offers no resistance, simply collapses against him and buries her head in his chest. Bellamy holds her tight, allowing her tears to soak into his jacket. He gently strokes her back, feeling the wiry muscles twitch under the contact.

"I'm sorry…" he whispers, breath hot and flush against her ear. "That you had to go through that, that you were turned into what you were. But Echo, you're not that person anymore. I told you on the ring that I forgive you, and I mean that. You're more than that life, more than just a spy, or a murderer. You saved my life in Mount Weather, and so many times since then, and there is nothing I can do to repay that."

He tightens his embrace as she brings her own arms up to encircle his back. Slowly, her shivers die and her tears stop, but still she does not let go of him.

"I don't hate you, Echo, please understand that." He tells her quietly. "You're a good person, I see that. Monty and Harper see that. Hell, even Murphy does… So why can't you?"

She finds the strength to raise her head, and looks up at him through red-rimmed eyes. "Why don't you ask your sister, or _Clarke?" _she says the name… not with disgust, but with an acute resignation.

Bellamy's mouth twitches sadly. "Because they don't understand you like I do."

She sniffs. "Just like the snake… people fear what they don't understand, and what they fear can easily become something they hate. They hate it because it makes them afraid."

Bellamy is quick to cup her cheek, and she leans into the touch, savouring the contact. "Then let's change their minds." He tells her, "Together."

Reflexively, she looks away, dismissive, but her eyes land on the serpent, still coiled on the ground, watching their exchange. It has not moved.

Exhaling, she forces herself to turn her head back to him. She squares her shoulders. Looks him in the eye and takes a deep breath.

"Together."

Bellamy smiles. He takes her hand in his and squeezes reassuringly. "Let's finish what we started."

She nods, and they resume their search. As they walk past the snake this time though, Bellamy does not go for his gun. Instead, he offers a small, respectful nod. "_Yu gonplei ste nou odon."_

Beside him, Echo can't help the small smile that breaks out. She looks back over her shoulder at the snake and sends a silent 'thank you'.

As they walk off, a magnificent golden Owl lands on a nearby branch.

At the sight of it, the snake slithers back into the undergrowth, never to be seen again.

…

_The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind._

_\- Friedrich Nietzsche_

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**Echo does not deserve the hate she gets. Period. She is my favourite character on the show, and I completely understand that not everyone feels that way, but the level of hate she gets (mostly just for being with Bellamy) is unwarranted and undeserved.**

**I wrote this because I see so many similarities between her character, and the snakes of the world. Both are undeservedly reviled, and are worth so much more than what people see them as. A lot of people may not like them, some might even hate them, but to me they're amazing and I love them to death! I even have a python named Echo, for this very reason.**

**Please let me know what you think! Any feedback, good or bad is much appreciated! I love writing about Echo (and this show in general) so hopefully there will be more shorts in the future.**

**(Also, the owl at the end is a direct metaphor for Bellarke)**


End file.
